Authored by Godsend777 Assisted by Alain Gravel Do not post without permission. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Death of One Chapter 6 Forever in Infinite Memory ----------------------------------------------------------------- She couldn't believe it. She honestly could not believe that the will of one person could do this... This level of destruction... As she looked around her, she saw nothing but death. The sea was now the sickly color of LCL, and the sky would be forever humming with disembodied souls too wrapped up in their own paradises to ever return to human form. She felt uneasy, as she was completely naked. The humming made her think that maybe, just maybe, they might be watching her. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. If not for the person next to her, she might kill herself. It was the thoughts of him that kept her from going insane on this now-forsaken planet. She thought of the events that lead to this. Who knew that throwing her lot in with Gendo would lead to this? ----------------------------------------------------------------- She had been standing at Rei's and Shinji's graves when he walked up behind her. She was surprised, to say the least, but even though he was a complete bastard in her eyes, nothing would disturb this moment. And then he spoke. 'Do you want them back?' It was all he had to ask. At first she was wary of the idea after what he had done with Ikari, but he explained his motivations in great detail. It took awhile, even summarized, but after five hours, she was convinced. All she had to do was follow his orders. The sun was long gone when she left his place. She returned home to mull over it a little more. Also, she had to think things through to make sure that she too, came out the victor. People who worked with or for Gendo tended to die or worse around him. Ritsuko was now a testament to that. Ritsuko... a broken woman. She had not known her well, but it still hurt a little to know that she know spent most of her time crying over Rei. Misato and Maya tried to help her out, but she would barely respond. She wished Misato was here. She wanted to be with someone, if only to kill the uneasy feeling she had. Luckily, PenPen seemed to sense this and waddled up beside her. For a long time, they sat there in silence, until the penguin patted her gently on the back with his flipper. She smiled back at him and put her arm around him. And then the alarm sounded. She wasn't surprised to hear that it was Unit-01 and Ikari who had been the designated targets. The Fifth Child didn't seem to shock her at all either. She knew what she had to do. 'Kill them.' Gendo ordered. All she had to do was follow his orders? No problem. She was past the point of caring. Her only concern was to get them back. So she went. The battle was quick, but furious. Ikari had about Shinji's skill at hand-to-hand, and she knew that she surpassed him in that area. The fight was over after she ripped off both of Eva'- 01's arms and through them away. Then she proceeded to 'dismantle' it. But Ikari had escaped with his new toy. Kaworu was his name. Kaworu Nagisa. Cute, but still the enemy. Almost a shame she had to kill him. But she had her orders. Once, she would have never thought to be anyone's servant. But the lengths she would go to to get her friends back... to get him back... She would sleep with the devil himself. No.. she already had. Gendo had his conditions after all... She stepped into Terminal Dogma, her Eva's shoulders slumping from the task at hand. On the ground below her stood both Ikari and Kaworu. Behind them, a white giant was crucified; a spear- like weapon jutting out from its chest. Gendo had told her about this, and she had expected it. The only thing that really surprised her about the entire battle was when both Ikari and Kaworu rose into the air. She half- expected them to fight her, but was even more surprised when the weapon that had been embedded in its chest slid out and clattered to the ground. The two took hands and floated towards the giant, and soon faded into it. 'Kill them.' Gendo ordered again. 'Use the Lance.' Her Eva reached over to pick up the Lance as the giant bubbled and reshaped itself into a giant Shinji Ikari. The effect... startled her. She dropped the Lance as it disengaged itself from the cross and walked over to her Eva. It reached out and caressed the Eva's armored body, causing her to feel a sensation that was near unknown with another person. She looked into the giant Shinji's eyes, and found that unlike Ikari's, they were the deep blue she had longed to see. Any thoughts she had melted into that deep blue. Almost literally, as 'Shinji' began to absorb her Eva into himself. After that... She couldn't describe it. She was blinded with the information being fed into her brain. In the end, she had lost them. All of them, except one precious soul who had found her crying her eyes. ----------------------------------------------------------------- She now nudged that soul awake. She wanted to be held. Just thinking about the events made her grip on reality loosen. "Wake up." She said, shaking his shoulder violently. She hoped to God he wasn't dead... "Wake up!" She snapped. Immediately, he sat up and cried out in surprise. "Wark!"* "Damn right it's wark!" Asuka screamed. "Wark waugh wark wark waugh?"** "Sigh... fine. But only because it's bigger than Shinji's!" "Wark!" PenPen cried enthusiastically. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * = What the fuck!? ** = Wanna restart humanity, hot stuff? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Author's notes: APRIL FOOL'S! Please don't tell others. That would spoil the fun. Don't try to comment on message boards either.